Saturday, June 30, 2012

The fire inside Lianne threatened to consume her, but she fought back and won. Unfortunately the collateral damage of her decisions won’t stop haunting her. She embarks on a secret trip to find Mags and return her son, but her search leads her into another nest of lies.

Everyone’s safety is in Lianne’s hands as the Malborn, an enemy more fearsome than her own people, looms over them. Will Lianne be able to unravel the secrets in time to save the ones she loves the most? Or will her lack of faith in her own decisions lead to disaster?

Afterlife weaves some of the favorite characters from the Cloud Prophet Trilogy (Anathema, Oubliette, and Severed) into The Swarm Trilogy as Lianne comes face-to-face with a character introduced at the end of Severed.

Review:

In Afterlife, you start off right where the last book stops. You continue the journey with Lianne as she tries to figure out who she can trust, who the bad guys are and how to defeat them.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

An adoptee raised in a foreign land, sixteen-year-old Lianne was content with her life as handmaiden to the queen, until a spell cast on her at birth activated. Now she's filled with uncontrollable rage and access to magic she thought had been bled from her people years ago. Even her years of secret training in elite hand-to-hand combat and meditation can't calm the fires raging inside her.

Her heart is torn between two boys, the one she's always loved and the one who always ignored her. But when the kingdom threatens to tear itself apart due to rumors surrounding the queen's alleged affair, who will Lianne protect and who will she destroy?

Review:

This book starts right into the action. There is never any downtime. From the moment I opened the book, until the end, I couldn’t put it down. There is action, romance, Twists and turns, and everything you want in a novel. The writing was very visual and gripping. I felt like I was experiencing it with the characters.

Plot: The plot was unique and set in a fantasy world where magic was reality, though it felt like the past. When I started reading it, I didn’t really know what the book was about. But you meet Lianne, who is an adoptee- a foreigner child raised by an adoptive family.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

When fifteen-year-old Jacob Lau is pulled from the crumpled remains of his mother's car, no one can explain why he was driving or why the police can't find his mother's body. A beautiful and mysterious neighbor offers to use her unique abilities to help him find his mom. But in exchange she requires Jacob to train as a Soulkeeper, a protector of human souls. He agrees to her demands, desperate for any clue to the mystery of his mother's disappearance. But soon Jacob finds himself trapped in a web of half-truths, and questions her motives for helping him.

Review:

This Story starts out with a 15 year old boy being taken to live with his uncle he had never met after his mother goes missing. He experiences a lot of prejudice and bullying at this small town high school, and finally befriends an Indian girl, who gets bullied just as much as he does. After throwing a fit and breaking a window of the neighbor’s house, he has to work off the cost in her garden. However, this neighbor has many secrets.

He learns about his past and his talents as a Soulkeeper, with the help of the neighbor Dr Silva, and sets out to find his mother at all costs.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Summary:I don’t open my eyes so I can’t see him, but I can smell him. He thickens the air I breathe, choking me with his scent…his aroma. I shiver. I have to resist. If I’m not strong, then I will be relegated to the same fate as this predator whose sickness infects me even now. But now, I crave him and he knows that; he has been counting on my need to end the gnawing pain. How he would savor my surrender. I’m alive, but how much longer will it take until I beg him not to be?

Review:This book starts right where the first book stops. All the same characters are present with a few new ones.The story develops more of the Evie/Reed/Russel triangle and really, you don’t know who to vote for, which is sad. I like knowing which person to vote for. Reed is her angel, a Powers angel, and is strong, honorable and worthy. However Russel is her

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Keepin Up with the Joneses has won an award... MY FIRST BLOGGER AWARD!!Keepin Up with the Jonesesis so excited and honored to be the recipient of the Liebster Award and would like to thank Cynthia White at The Things You Can Read for the nomination. I am humbled by the acknowledgement, Thank you so much!

What is the Liebster Award?

The Liebster Award is given to bloggers who are up and coming and who have less than 200 followers.

Rules:

1.Each person must post 11 facts about themselves.

2.Answer 11 questions the tagger has assigned and develop 11 questions for the people who are tagged.

Friday, June 22, 2012

FF is hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee and, well, you know the rules. Answer the question, follow people, link them back to this post so they can follow you, etc.

Today's Question:

Q: If you could "unread" a book, which one would it be? Is it because you want to start over and experience it again for the first time? Or because it was THAT bad?

A: Indebted by Amy Bartol, the 3rd book of the Premonition Series. I had been SO excited to read it (because the first 2 books were so good I just couldnt wait) that I read it so fast, and then it was done. The fourth book is in the works, but I just wish that I had taken my time and read it slower, so that I could enjoy it better.

Now, leave me a comment, and let me know if you are a new follower so I can follow you back! :)

Thursday, June 21, 2012

As Ive been revising my WIP, I have been really focusing on making my work “tighter.” A lot of the feedback I got was in regards to those forbidden words… ADVERBS! As I was re-reading my manuscript, I thought, “but why are they so bad?”

Here is what I found out:

1.Most of the time, adverbs are redundant and unnecessary.

§"totally flabbergasted." The beauty of "flabbergasted" is that it implies an astonishment that is total; I can't picture someone being partly flabbergasted.

§“Fumed angrily.” Can you imagine “fuming” to mean anything other than being angry?

§“Whispered quietly.” Can you actually whisper loud?

2.Often writers want to explain dialogue by adding adverbs, but your dialogue should hold its own, and shouldn’t need the adverb.

§"You broke my toy," he said accusingly. The dialogue records an accusation.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Ok, the time has come. I can no longer READ just to avoid revising my novel –not anymore! The Procrastination has come to an end!

After receiving a LOT of advice and feedback on my book, I realized just how much work it needs! This is both encouraging and discouraging at the same time. I was very naïve when I began this process, and thought that as soon as I finished my manuscript, I would be done!

OH MY GOODNESS, I was SO wrong!

With all the ideas on how to improve my book, and with the help of SO MANY great blogs out there, I intend to fix this problem.

First Step- fix the beginning. This will probably be the hardest step because I have to REALLY fix it. Like, basically start over! So sad I know… but that’s ok.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Three curses. Two brothers. One love triangle.Sometimes love is meant to be. But sometimes...love is the death of you.

Seventeen-year-old Scarlet has just died. Only, dying isn't unusual for a girl under a centuries old curse that left her semi-immortal.

This time, though, she comes back to her current life instead of awaking in a new one, and she realizes her curse is changing. With the help of the immortal Archer brothers, Scarlet tries to piece together her life and break the curse before her impending death comes again.

Review:

Awry starts off right where Anew ends. You are immediately thrust back into Scarlet’s life as she tried to understand what is going on, tries to remember her past, and figure out how to end the curse.

Friday, June 15, 2012

TGIF! Feature & Follow is a weekly tradition hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. Rules of the game: Follow our lovely hosts, Follow their feature, and Follow other bloggers. Gain followers and meet other bookies/new friends that are as obsessed as you are...or I am.. whatever.. :)

Q: Happy Father's Day! Who is your favorite dad character in a book and why?

A:

So the only thing I could think of (that hasn’t already been done) is on that movie Storm of the Century by Steven King. Techinically it wasn’t a novel that was turned into a movie, but a screenplay only. However, it says “A novel made for TV.”

This movie used to thouroughly scare the crap out of me…

But the father (played by Tim Dalley) was the only one who wasn’t willing to give up his child for the greater good. Every other parent was willing to give the monster their child… but he wasn’t.

And despite how freaky the movie was, this fathers love stuck with me all these many years!!

The last thing Dawson Black expected was Bethany Williams. As a Luxen, an alien life form on Earth, human girls are…well, fun. But since the Luxen have to keep their true identities a secret, falling for one would be insane. Dangerous. Tempting. Undeniable.

Bethany can’t deny the immediate connection between her and Dawson. And even though boys aren’t a complication she wants, she can’t stay away from him. Still, whenever they lock eyes, she’s drawn in. Captivated. Lured. Loved.

Dawson is keeping a secret that will change her existence…and put her life in jeopardy. But even he can’t stop risking everything for one human girl. Or from a fate that is as unavoidable as love itself.

Review:

Well, I have read many a blog about this book, and the next, Obsidian, and I was excited to finally read it.The book starts out explaining the life of

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Destiny has a way of catching up.Saddled with powers she doesn’t understand, Etta Fleming’s world is turned upside down the day she meets Cooper Everett, the man who transports her to an alternate reality. A reality she was meant to be a part of.One minute she’s an orphan living at Dominion House for Girls, and institution for delinquent foster kids, then finds herself attending the exclusive Dominion Hall Academy.Plucked from the only world she’s ever known, Etta now has to deal with an aunt she never knew, a boyfriend she doesn’t know and a best friend who can’t know.

Review:

The book starts out with Etta, an orphan who has powers of telekinesis. She is a stubborn and strong willed teen, who has been through more bad situations than most go through in their entire lives. She runs into Cooper, a man who apparently had been searching for her, and he explains that she is in the wrong reality. He then takes her to the reality she was meant to be in, so that she can undo some horrible fate.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Last night my 6 year old daughter got sick and threw up
several times! Because of this, I stayed home from work today. Though we have
spent some time together, the majority of the day she spent relaxing in bed or
watching TV. I figure, since she is sick, she is allowed a day of nothingness
to recuperate.

What this really means to me is, I have finally had a chance to blog, To REALLY
blog. I spent many hours reading blogs and commenting. I posted another review.
I started reading a book, then decided it was too horrible to continue (OH MAN-
just in the prologue I counted 5 grammatical errors!), so I started another.

Summary:(from Amazon)Zoë Merrick lived a less than ordinary
life, until late one night when she was brutally attacked and left for dead.
A man named Adam spotted her running down the road covered in blood, and took
her under his wing. Zoë didn't just survive that night - she underwent a
physical transformation and acquired strange new abilities. Severed from her
old life, her frustration grows as she tries to comprehend what's happening to
her.
Serendipity leads her to Justus. He's handsome, arrogant, and not entirely
human. Zoë learns the truth about what she is, and just how dangerous their
world is for a young Mage. The only way she will understand her power is by
putting her trust in this man, and accepting the protection he offers.
When her immortal freedom is threatened by the one man who has a right to claim
her, Zoë learns the price of freedom...and the value of loyalty.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Title: Inescapable (the first book in The Premonition Series)Author: Amy Bartol Rating: 5 stars

Summary from Amazon:My name is Evie Claremont and this was to be the making of me–my
freshman year of college. I’d been hoping that once I’d arrived on
Crestwood’s campus, the nightmare that I’ve been having would go away.
It hasn’t. I may be an inexperienced seventeen-year-old, but I’m
grounded…sane. I look for rational explanations to even the strangest
circumstances. Since meeting sophomore Reed Wellington, however, nothing
makes any sense. Whenever he’s near, I feel an attraction to him–a
magnetic kind of force pulling me towards him. I know what you’re
thinking…that sounds fairly awesome. Yeah, it would be…if he liked me,
but Reed acts as if I’m the worst thing that has ever happened to
Crestwood…or him. But get this, for some reason every time I turn around
he’s there, barging into my life. What is the secret that he’s
keeping from me? I’m hoping that it’s anything but what I suspect: that
he’s not exactly normal…and neither am I. So, maybe Crestwood won’t be
the making of me, but it could be the breaking of me. I’ve been left to
wonder if the dark future my dream is foretelling is…inescapable.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

So, I have received quite a lot of feedback and reviews on my book, and though some of these reviews have positive things to say, so many of them list things I need to improve upon. That being said, I have decided to go back and revise the first several chapters of my book and edit the entire thing again. This is both exciting and frustrating at the same time. What’s even more frustrating is figuring out HOW to write it better.

How do you make the beginning of your book great? It cant be mediocre, it cant be just OK, it needs to be great. It needs to capture the readers attention right off the bat, and make them want more! So… how do you do that?

After reading a lot of information on the subject, this is what Ive found out.

1.The most important thing is the first sentence!!

a.The first sentence could introduce a character.Example: “I am an invisible man.” - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) The reader automatically starts thinking about this. Invisible? How can someone be invisible? What would happen if someone were invisible? I MUST know how/why/who this could happen to! It explains at the very beginning, who this story is about and makes you want to know more.

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About Me

Theresa M Jones is just a regular small town, Texas girl. When she isn't at work at a local Medical Equipment provider, you can find her at home with her husband and two beautiful (and rambunctious) kiddos.
In her spare time- as if there ever was such a thing as "spare time" - she reads and reviews books on her book blog, and writes paranormal romance novels.
POWER (The Descendent Trilogy #1) is her debut New Adult (Mature YA) Paranormal Romance novel.